Nintendo Switch Online App Now Available, WWG's Guided Tour
The introductory version of Nintendo's Online companion app is now available to download for iOS [...]
The introductory version of Nintendo's Online companion app is now available to download for iOS and Android users. Sorry Windows Phone owners, you're out of luck (anyone out there still using a Windows Phone?). You can find the iOS version here, and the Android version right here.
Right now there isn't a lot you can do with the app, since it's made to be used with Splatoon 2, which launches tomorrow night around 11PM Central. If you're wondering if Splatoon 2 is worth checking out, you can read our full review right here. As for the app, it's been getting mixed reception since it was first announced back in January. Not everyone is thrilled that Nintendo will be relegating simple functions like voice chat and party invites to an entirely separate device, when things of that nature should be executed on a console OS level. That's the consensus, anyway.
So what will the app actually do, and what can you expect it to do for you on Friday and Saturday as you start diving into the colorful, competitive world of Splatoon 2 with your friends? Quite a lot, actually. Ever the optimists, we at WWG are actually really excited to link up with some friends and see how the voice chat works in practice.
And in fact, since I already own Splatoon 2, I can tell you quite a bit about what this app will do for you once you start playing the game. Read on!
Welcome to SplatNet2
When you boot up the app and load up the SplatNet portal, you'll be greeted with a variety of basic stats and information that you can scroll through. This is your kind of at-a-glace hub. You'll see your current level and ranks, your total inkage and inkage milestones (NintenDaan is way ahead of me), and your currently-selected gear right at the top.
You'll notice that right now I'm seeing a slosh bucket. This isn't my favorite weapon, but it is the weapon that I currently have equipped. The menu will show you how much ground you've covered with your selected weapon, as well as your current gear and ability loadout. This is pretty useful for when you know you're about to hop online for a quick match or two. If you're like me, you may head straight for the lobby without bothering to remember if you had switched away to experiment with a new weapon or not.
There will also be a little shopping bag icon at the top right of the home screen (not pictured). From here you'll be able to peruse a variety of available items, which you can purchase straight from the app. I bought these sneakers because they're the first piece of gear I've seen with the ink-saver ability. I'll be able to pick them up from a shady NPC named Murch the next time I boot up the game.
prevnextPlan to Play Your Favorite Maps
If you want to create a private lobby and use the app to invite your friends, you can certainly do that, and you can control which maps and modes you want to play with your friends. If you're going to be participating in turf war, ranked battles, or league battles, you'll want to know which maps are currently loaded up into rotation. There's an entire section of the app dedicated to that very purpose.
You'll see here an easy to read timeline. This shows you the current maps on rotation, what time the next few maps will be rotating in, and how close you are in the timeline to that next rotation. For those of you who only like to play an hour or two of games in any given day or night, this will be really handy for making sure that you can either play your favorite maps, or else play the maps that you know you need more experience with.
prevnextAll of Your Personal Stats
The "My Stats" page is just that. This section of the app will track not only all of your inkage and weapon data, but all of your single-player data as well. The inkage data is actually really fun to keep track of. Nintendo will let you know whenever you hit certain milestones. After so many battles, once you've inked a certain crazy amount of ground, Nintendo will add up all of that turf and give you a real-world landmark to compare it to. As you can see, the first milestone is inking a total area equal to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Not bad for a little kid with an ink gun! As you can imagine as players sink in thousands of hours over years of time, these milestones are going to get ridiculous.
Single-player campaign data is tracked as well.
I'm not going to show off too much because I'd like for as much of the single-player campaign as possible to be a surprise for y'all, but you can see that every single stage can be tracked according to how fast you beat it, and with which weapons. Eventually, every weapon type will be available for every stage, so the replay value for those of you who love to break records is going to be sky-high.
prevnextBattle Stats
All of your battle data will be collected here. Your last 50 matches will be displayed, showing whether you won or lost, and your personal performance in each match. This will provide a lot of great data for teams who like to stick together, practice all night, and then analyze what they did right and did wrong the following day.
You're also able to tap any individual match to load up the full results. You'll see the map, the final verdict from Judd, and your placement among your team and the entire team's performance.
You can imagine my frustration after losing this particular match. You'll see all of the gear you had equipped as well, so this will be nice for observing matches in which you got dominated, and thinking about how you could have geared up to alleviate some of your misfortune.
prevnext...And Voice Chat, Right?
Yes, and this app will allow you to connect with friends and chat with them in a party while playing Splatoon 2. If you want to complain about how primitive this solution is for something as simple as voice chat, there are plenty of places for you to do so. WWG prides itself on maintaining an honest but optimistic approach to the games and devices we love, so we're going to withhold our critiques and analyses until after we've had multiple days and nights to test the app out in action. You better believe I'll be hopping online all weekend and playing through as many Turf War and Salmon Run matches as I can with friends, and I'll be sure to check back and relay my experiences, whether they be positive or negative.
Stay tuned.
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